MURRAY WELCOMES STRIKING COMPETITON

Brighton & Hove Albion striker Glenn Murray has welcomed the competition that the arrival of club record signing Jurgen Locadia will bring to the Seagulls side.

The Dutch forward put pen to paper with the Albion on Friday evening, joining from PSV Eindhoven on a four-and-a-half-year deal, and Murray emphasised that the striker’s addition is a welcome one for the squad.

He said, “We’ve read about him, but like I’ve said before any help is welcome, so we’ll take him on board and hopefully he can do well for us.

“I think we needed that [the signing] – once he gets over his injury I’m sure he’ll be able to hit the ground running and help us as a team.

“I’ve read his stats and he sounds exciting, and I think it’s exactly what we need.”

The Albion frontman was speaking after Saturday’s defeat to Chelsea at the Amex Stadium, and conceded that key decisions within the game perhaps went against the hosts as they fell to defeat.

“I think both incidents are penalties – we’ve seen them both on replays and in real time.

“But that’s the little bit of luck we’re missing out on at the moment. I’m sure that will change soon though, and it will even out before the end of the season.

“It doesn’t matter if you’re a new side in the Premier League or a club that has been in the division for four or five years – anyone outside the top six is going to have difficult spells and it’s about how you come through those times.

“You might not win for a while and we always knew a run like this could be a possibility and we’re prepared to deal with that.”

After Saturday’s Emirates FA Cup tie with Middlesbrough, Chris Hughton’s men face a run of Premier League fixtures against a number of sides who are currently in close proximity in the league table.

The striker emphasised that Albion’s good run earlier in the season shows that they can more than compete in England’s top flight, and he challenged his teammates to rediscover that form.

“We had a very good period earlier in the campaign and given how results are going at the moment that looks to have been very important.

“You look at some teams who struggled at the start before regrouping, and that’s what we’re looking to do.

“The manager is always level headed with us and I think he’s renowned for that. We won six or seven games in a row last season and he was exactly the same then.

“We can be encouraged by the number of chances we created on Saturday [against Chelsea] as well. It doesn’t matter if you sit in or go out and try and take the game to them, with the world-class players they have, they’re always going to create chances.”